Method and apparatus for intermodulation noise suppression in RF power amplifiers

An apparatus and method for suppressing intermodulation noise in a radio frequency power amplifier. Intermodulation noise suppression is achieved by use of an amplitude limiter connected to the signal source and a shaping filter connected between the amplitude limiter and the power amplifier. The shaping filter may be a band-stop notch filter which attenuates intermodulation noise in a selected radio band or a bandpass filter which attenuates all out-of-band intermodulation noise. The intermodulation noise suppression of this invention causes the signal entering the power amplifier to be characterized by (1) a low peak-to-average envelope distribution and (2) low spectral content in the radio frequency bands to be protected.